Traditional Medicine The Prophetic Medicine At-Tibb An-Nabawi The Medicine Of The Prophet (PBUH)
We say, and
Allah is the helper Who provides the
means and controls the actions, that
there are two types of illnesses stated
in the holy Qur'an: 1. Illness of the
hearts and, 2. Illness of the body. As
for the illness of the heart, it
comprises two types, the first is
suspicion and doubt, and the second
desire, allurement and sin. In that
regard, Allah, the glorious and
magnificent, says: ? Their hearts are
sick, and Allah has caused their
sickness to intensify ¤ (Qur'an
2:10). He also says: ? Those whose
hearts are sick and the unbelievers say:
What does God mean with this parable?¤
(Qur'an 74:31) He, the most
magnificent then says concerning those
who refuse to accept the criterion of
the Qur'an and the prophetic
traditions: ? When they are invited to
Allah and to His Messenger to judge
between them, a group of them will
object, though if they were right, they
would walk to him flagrantly. Are they
sick at heart or do they have doubt, or
do they fear that Allah and His
Messenger will defraud them? Nay, but
such are the unjust ones ¤ (Qur'an
24:48).
This is
the sickness of doubt and suspicion. As
for the sickness of desire, allurement
and wantonness, this is the sin of
adultery. Admonishing the believers,
Allah, the magnificent and most exalted,
addresses the wives of His Prophet h who
had to serve and attend the needs of the
ever growing number of people visiting
and soliciting the advice of His Prophet
h, saying: ? O ye consort of the
Prophet, you are not like any other
women if you heed with piety. Therefore,
be not too complaisant of speech lest
someone whose heart is sick should be
moved with desire ¤ (Qur'an 33:32).
As for
the illness of the body, Allah, the
magnificent and most exalted, says: ? A
blind person is not subject to blame,
nor is the lame or the sick ¤ (Qur'an
48:17). He, the Almighty Lord, also
mentions physical illness, the health
advantages embodied in the pilgrimage,
fasting, and the hygienic properties of
taking ablution, besides other benefits,
to illustrate the practical as well as
spiritual wealth that is hidden in the
glorious Qur'an for those who read it,
act upon it and fathom its mysteries.
This will help one to satisfy his utmost
needs by pursuing the divine guidance.
Such guidance in physical wellness is
better defined in pursuing three avenues
including: preventive medicine,
abstaining from what is harmful and
cleansing the body and flushing out
pernicious toxins. God Almighty mentions
these three principles in the verse of
‘fasting' saying: ? Fasting is
prescribed for a fixed number of days;
however, if any of you is ill or
traveling, then the prescribed number of
days should be made up on later days ¤
(Qur'an 2:184). Thus, He otherwise
permitted the sick to postpone his fast
until he recovers from his illness, and
for the traveler to temporarily delay
the prescribed fast to preserve his
strength, because of the strain and
movement involved in travel. As for the
verse of ‘pilgrimage', He says: ? If
any of you is ill or has an ailment in
his scalp (necessitating shaving, he
should) in compensation either fast, or
feed the poor, or offer sacrifice ¤ (Qur'an
2:196). Here again, God Almighty gives
permission for a sick person or someone
suffering from a serious itch, dandruff
or lice, for example, or from other
scalp disease to compensate by shaving
the head during the sacrament of Ihrăm,
which is otherwise not permitted, to
eliminate harmful vapors that would
congest over the scalp, hindering the
breathing of the pores and perhaps
causing infection of follicles. Once he
shaves his head, the pores open and such
vapors are emitted, allowing a natural
cleansing process. Thus, in interpreting
Qur'anic verses, and as one may
understand from the divine explanations,
they provide guidance in handling the
lesser illness to help treat the more
serious illness, and therefore, a
deductive method called qiyăs is
developed for purging harmful toxins and
other congestions. This method deals
with ten areas of the human body when
excited, including: the blood when it
boils, semen when it abounds, urine,
feces, gas, vomit, sneeze, sleep, hunger
and thirst. Each one of these ten
elements causes an illness when
congested and henceforth necessitates
purgation.
As for
the aspect of dietetic abstinence (himyah),
the divine guidance provided in the
verse of ‘ablution' says: ? If you
are ill, or on a journey, or if one of
you comes from offices of nature, or if
you have been in contact with women and
find no water for washing your whole
body, then use a clean surface (sand or
earth) and rub your faces and hands with
it, for God blots out sins and forgives
again and again ¤ (Qur'an 4:43). In
this case, God Almighty permitted a sick
person to substitute tayammum for the
regular ablution and avoid the use of
water when its external use is harmful.
Again, this guidance indicates the need
for abstinence to alleviate questionable
health complications. In such a way, God
Almighty instituted the basic principles
of medicinal remedies and their
constitutions.
In this
study, we will also introduce the
medical guidance which is instituted by
God's messenger h, upon whom be peace,
and surely there is no better way to
apply such knowledge than through their
guidance. As for the medicine of the
hearts, it can only be acquired through
God's prophets, upon all of whom be
peace and blessings, and to correct
one's heart and wash it from
impurities one must recognize his
Creator and Cherisher, His divine Names
and attributes, observe His actions,
contemplate His wisdom and adopt the
criteria He instituted for His creation.
Such hearts also must beseech His
blessings by consenting to what He
commands and loves, and by abstaining
from what He forbids and abhors, and
one's heart will know no trueness or
experience true life otherwise. Such
knowledge can only be learned from the
teachings of His messengers, upon all of
whom be peace, and thinking otherwise
will be completely wrong and unfruitful.
Therefore, should one think that he can
do oppositely, it means that he merely
fosters the health and strength of his
animal mind, desire, lust, carnality and
wantonness. His life will be meaningless
and similar to that of animals, while a
true heart of piety is free from such
base associations. One who cannot
discern the difference between these two
types of hearts should cry for his
losses, for a true heart is alive, and a
heart that is blinded with carnality is
dead, and a true heart is filled with
light while a dead heart is submerged in
the abyss of darkness.
God's
Messenger h, indicated that there are
two types of knowledge: (A) Knowledge of
religion, and (B) knowledge of the body.
The medicine for the illness of the body
is also of two types: (1) one which,
innate in both human and animal lives,
necessitates no diagnosis of a physician
to attend to it, such as hunger, thirst,
cold and fatigue, and has its own
natural remedies and antidotes; and (2)
a second type of illness which does
require diagnosis and treatment, and
affects one's temperaments and humors,
whereby heat, cold, dryness or moisture
in the body exceed their natural
balance, and the effects of combining
any two of them exacerbates discomfort.
Such effects produce one of two types of
illness, that is, either somatical or
collateral. Hence, for example,
somatical illness manifests in the form
of agitation of the blood or spillage of
an element, while the collateral illness
manifests as a result of such excess
spillage and after the elimination of
the original causes. Thus, the
illness-causing matters are expelled and
the after effects remain to influence
one's temperaments and humors.
A
somatical disease carries its own
stimulus that arouses further
complications. Hence, if the disease
carries its own stimulus, one must first
diagnose the cause, then the effects,
then find the medicine—that is
recognizing the disease, then the
illness, then prescribing the cure.
Somatic diseases manifest in the form of
physiological changes, such as a cavity
in an organ, narrowing or expanding of
ducts, organ deformation (enlarged heart
or small stomach for example), rough or
soft uterine-wall tissue, dislocated
bones or displaced organs as well as
other diseases. When organs correlate
and operate harmoniously, they form a
healthy body, while if they are
abnormal, discordant or malfunctioning,
they produce the synchronous effects of
an illness, some of which are organic
and others relate to bodily temperaments
and humors.
Common diseases are the result of
malfunction of the humors. This
intemperament is called ‘illness'.
When its harm is felt, it manifests in
eight areas: (1) four of them are
compound, and (2) the other four are
primary. The latter can either be cold,
hot, moist or dry and they manifest at
the site of the liver. The compound
temperaments manifest as hot and moist,
cold and moist, hot and dry, and cold
and dry. This is caused with or without
spillage of a component, and if the
disease does not reach further
complications and produces mere
discomfort, it indicates an unhealthy
balance of one's body.
Thus,
the human body sustains: (1) three
natural healthy conditions, (2) one
abnormal condition, and (3) a mild
condition. The natural healthy
conditions demonstrate the standard
functions and constitution of the human
body, otherwise, one is sick, and the
third condition known as mild identifies
an in-between state that is consented to
and is treated by the person as
tolerable, without the need for a
physician, by taking a simple pain
reliever for example. Such an in-between
state of "not healthy" and "not
sick" can only linger in the same
category, for negative does not become
positive, but rather remains constant or
invariable.
The
cause of such body abnormality can
either be internal or external. The
internal causes manifest because of the
four humors: (1) hot, (2) cold, (3)
moist, and (4) dry, and as for the
external causes, they manifest because
of the nutrients one takes in, and those
can either be agreeable or disagreeable
to the body. Thus, the harm or illness
that results thereafter produces such
imbalance and discomfort, or could be
the result of malfunction of a specific
organ, or a general malaise of the body,
or even weakness of the spirits that
bear the body. This general condition is
caused by: (1) increase in passivity of
what must be balanced when it does not
compensate for losses; or (2) by
decrease of needed adjustment of
balancing factors of the humors when
they do not compensate for saturation;
or (3) by the hindering of agents that
are supposed to facilitate the flow of
balancing factors; or (4) by the linking
of agents whose binding interferes with
creating the correct balance; or (5) by
the acceleration of what should be
moderate; or (6) by the deformation of
molecules; or (7) by the displacement of
an organ. The experienced physician or
hakim can identify such disorders and
either eliminate the causes that
infringed upon the proper constitution
of a healthy body, or he maybe able to
stabilize them and gradually, with the
proper treatment, deal with the disease
by using the correct antidote. Hence,
the proper diet (himyah), moderating
excess and abstinence prove to be the
best cure as we shall see later in this
study of guidance in natural healing
with Tibb medicine of God's Prophet (uwbp).
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